Apollo 11 Flight Plan Relaunched

Author : National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781537117447
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (174 download)

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Download or read book Apollo 11 Flight Plan written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and published by . This book was released on 2016-08-24 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full Color reproduction of the original Apollo 11 Flight Plan by NASA. All charts and graphs are included. This manual provided minute-by-minute instructions to the astronauts as they traveled to the moon! Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969. Armstrong became the first man to step onto the lunar surface. Broadcast on live TV to a world-wide audience, Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and described the event as "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He and Aldrin spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 47.5 pounds of lunar material for return to Earth. Michael Collins piloted the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent just under a day on the lunar surface before rendezvousing with Columbia in lunar orbit. Launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that landed back on Earth; a service module (SM), which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a lunar module (LM) that had two stages - a lower stage for landing on the Moon, and an upper stage to place the astronauts back into lunar orbit. After being sent toward the Moon by the Saturn V's upper stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered into lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into the lunar module Eagle and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. The astronauts used Eagle's upper stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that blasted them out of lunar orbit on a trajectory back to Earth. They returned to Earth and landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy: "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."